1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an integrated information communication system connecting information communication equipments or information communication systems such as personal computers, LANs (Local Area Networks), telephones (including cellular phones), FAXs (Facsimile), CATVs (Cable Television), Internet and the like, not only via dedicated lines, but also via ISDN (Integrated Services Digital Network), FR (Frame Relay), ATM (Asynchronous Transfer Mode), IPX (Integrated Packet Exchange), satellite, wireless and public lines. Integrated information communication equipments perform communication provided with an address (for information communication) for distinguishing the integrated information communication equipment from other equipment. Particularly, the present invention relates to an integrated information communication system which integrates data transfer services based on connection-less networks (e.g., RFC791 or RFC1883 IP (Internet Protocol) technology) and improves the overall economics of the information communication system by employing a unified address system, and ensuring security to realize interactive communications between connected terminals or systems.
2. Description of the Prior Art
In accordance with computer and information communication technology, computer communication networks have in recent years come to be widely used in universities, research institutes, government organizations, and intra-corporation/inter-corporation situations. LANs are used for intra-corporation communication networks, and in the event that the geographic locale is on a national basis, the form thereof becomes such as shown in FIG. 1. In the example described in FIG. 1, each local LAN uses a common protocol, with each being connected by dedicated lines. Here, e.g., a corporation X has LAN-X1, LAN-X2 and LAN-X3 as LANs, a corporation Y has LAN-Y1, LAN-Y2 and LAN-Y3 as LANs, and both corporations X and Y use communication address systems ADX and ADY for performing computer communications. Since it is necessary to lay a separate dedicated line for each corporation with such a LAN network, system architecture becomes costly, and in the event that connection is to be made to a LAN network of another corporation, interfacing must be matched such as the communication address system, making inter-connection very difficult and very costly.
On the other hand, the Internet has recently become widespread as a global-scale computer communication network. On the Internet, networks are connected using a router of a provider, a communication protocol called TCP/IP (Transmission Control Protocol/Internet Protocol) is employed, dedicated lines or FR networks are used for connecting remote areas, and Ethernets which are 10 Mbps LANs or FDDIs (Fiber Distributed Data Interface) which are 10 Mbps LANs are used as communication paths within structures. FIG. 2 shows an example of an Internet connection, in which the routers in the providers maintain mutual connection by exchanging routing table connection information. Each router is connected to a plurality of networks, and judgment is made based on the routing table regarding to which router connected to which provider's network received data should go next. Thus, on the Internet, the IP address attached to each IP packet (IP datagram) is checked, judgment is made to which router the IP packet should be sent, and that IP packet is sent accordingly. Thus, IP packets are transferred one after another and delivered to the destination computer, by means of all routers performing the above-described operation.
FIG. 3 illustrates the information contents of an RFC791 IP packet used by the Internet, divided into a control field and a data field. FIG. 4 illustrates the information contents of a similar RFC1883, divided into a control field and a data field. In either figure, the parentheses ( ) indicate the number of bits.
However, with the Internet, the path control is restricted by IP, so that one cannot tell whether the other party with which communication is being made is the authorized party, and the system is such that the communication path is not administrated in an integrated manner, meaning that there are problems regarding security in that information may be eavesdropped. Also, in reality, addresses within the LANs are being separately decided by the LAN users, so there is the necessity to replace the LAN user addresses when connecting the LAN to the Internet. Also, communication quality such as communication speed and communication error rate for the trunk lines making up the Internet communication path differ from one line to another for each LAN, and are practically non-uniform. Also, there are problems such as an attempt to send a 10 Mbps TV signal for video-conferencing not achieving the desired communication speed. Further, there is no administrator for performing maintenance of the network such as in the case of failure, or for integrating the overall network for future planning for the network and so forth. Also, with LAN networks and the Internet, the terminals are personal computers (computers), and it has been difficult to use telephones, FAX and CATV in an integrated manner therein.